Hi. My name's Steven.
I was born and raised here in San Antonio.
I'm twenty-eight years old
and this is my testimony.
You know the Scripture talks about
in John 8:34,
where Jesus was speaking
to the Pharisees saying that,
"Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin."
And that scripture
spoke volumes to me
because that's exactly
what I was.
I was enslaved to sin
throughout my teen life
and so forth.
When I was growing up,
my parents were divorced
and I was
periodically going
from my father and mother's house,
and my dad,
my biological father was
selling drugs,
and I began to
take an interest
and an influence over it.
And kind of
followed him as my model.
And wanted to be like him.
After that,
my dad was incarcerated
for a number of years,
and I began to
live into a life
that was,
that was sinful.
I was involved in drugs.
I was already sexually active,
and
most of my life,
most of my teen life was
consistently in sin.
I want to say
when I was around fifteen,
I was involved in gangs.
And
I began to follow
the influence of this lifestyle,
and you know
one thing that really, really scared me
and put a lot of fear into me was
that my life was in jeopardy
most of the time
because of my involvement in them.
And I remember one day
because I was so in fear of dying,
that I began to pray
and I asked God
to deliver me from
this type of lifestyle
of the gang activity
and the things I was involved in.
And shortly after,
the Lord miraculously,
broke the gang up
and I was no longer involved.
It was God's common grace.
But I was not saved.
Even though God heard my cry.
Even though God attended to my prayer.
That doesn't mean that I was born again.
Again, the Scripture I said at the beginning
was that, "Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin."
I was still enslaved to sin.
Even though I was no longer enslaved
to a gang set.
I was still enslaved to my sinful ways.
I can tell you right now that
immediately after God
broke this gang up
and I was free from that gang,
the very next day
[what] I went to go do was smoke a joint.
and to go get drunk off a quart of beer.
I was still enslaved to my sin.
You know, the Bible speaks about
in Ephesians 2:1
that we're dead in our trespasses and sins.
So I knew that I was a dead man walking.
I was enslaved to sin,
and I continued this lifestyle
even though I had
a small belief about God,
which was really idolatry because,
the sinful life that I was living
was by this God I created
and fashioned myself.
Which is idolatry.
Which many professing Christians do today.
And
this time
I met a girl
later on,
even though I was dead in my sins
and I was enslaved
and I had a false concept about God.
It wasn't until later on
that time when her and I were dating,
that I began to go to strip bars
and started drinking at a young age.
This was before
I was eighteen years old.
This lifestyle kind of progressed
throughout my teen life.
It wasn't until
one Friday night,
I went to a strip bar
and I began to drink
and I came home
that Friday night,
went to bed as normal.
Woke up that Saturday morning,
absolutely convicted of my sins
and transgressions.
I was,
I was in such deep guilt,
that I knew that
if I were to die
I would spend eternity in Hell.
Because I violated the law of God,
and I knew that I was a dead man
in sins and enslaved.
That very Saturday,
I believe I was born again.
That very next day on Sunday
is where I was baptized.
And at that time
I was living with my girlfriend.
When I returned home from being baptized,
I told my girlfriend that,
I was a Christian,
and I asked her to move out of the apartment.
Well that didn't go to well at all.
There was a lot of hostility and conflict
and I almost thought about giving up.
But somehow the Spirit of God
was helping me to persevere,
and to continue living a lifestyle without sin.
That day
when I was eighteen
I was born again.
You know the scripture
that I mentioned earlier about John 8:33
where Jesus says,
"Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin."
A few verses down, 36 says that,
"If the Son has made you free,
you are free indeed."
When I was born again,
when God redeemed me,
saved me,
when I was no longer
dead in my sins and trespasses,
He made me alive in Christ
and I was free from my bondage to sin.
I had no desire to go back to these strip clubs.
I had no desire to go back to
smoke a joint because I was depressed,
or do some sinful acts.
I was free through Christ.
I was no longer in bondage.
To sum up my testimony,
what I am trying to say is,
is that if I lived a decent life
and believed in God,
I believed that I was going to heaven.
But,
my goodness compared to the Ten Commandments,
the Law of God,
I knew that I was guilty.
In fact three of them,
there's three of them that really,
that really used to bother me.
One is, have you ever told a lie?
Well, if you told a lie
what would that make you?
It made me a liar.
Some people would say well that
wouldn't make me a liar.
Well my question to you is,
how many times do you have to murder
to be a murderer?
Or how many times do you have to rape
to become a rapist?
And how many times would you have to lie
to become a liar?
I knew that I was a liar.
The Scripture also talks about
using God's name in vain.
Which is called blasphemy.
Jesus even said that,
"If you look at a woman with lust,
you commit adultery in your heart."
So I knew I was guilty before God,
and unless God saved me.
I would be damned
and spend eternity in Hell.
The Lord saved me from this type of lifestyle.
And gave me a new heart.
I used to have a heart of stone.
A heart of stone that desired
nothing more than sin,
and was dead.
Until God gave me a new heart.
Which,
prompted me to put my trust in Christ.
To repent from my sins
and to no longer be in bondage into them.